Dear Everyone,
It seems a long time since a rushed a note to everyone in England. I am now recovered from malaria but still do not feel quite my usual self, I seem to get tired at times despite eating well and giving up beer. Perhaps the latter was a mistake!
My stay in the UK hospital was amazing. Malaria, naturally is not common, but I was luck to have a young doctor who had worked in Accra and a nurse who had lived most of her life in Malawi. It was because of this that I was a bit alarmed when they told me that I was pretty sick and ideally needed a blood transfusion. Anaemia is part of life over here, but also a major problem. Not just from malaria, but also sickle cell. I doubt very much if a blood transfusion would be available in hospitals here as blood has to be begged and bought from unwilling relatives. Still all is well now, I got tested in Accra and the haemoglobin levels were rising a bit.
Nkwanta has been a bit of a nightmare over the last few weeks. There is something up with the power supply, but no-one is saying what. We have been lucky to have four hours power in any day. Today is an exception, we are on hour 6 and keeping our fingers crossed. I am much more officious here than at home and visited the electricity people nearly every day to ask about the problem. In the end I wrote a letter to various people and took it to the Assembly to sign and send out. As a consequence I was invited to the security meeting to discuss the matter. Unfortunately, the electricity people did not turn up so the matter was shelved again.
The rainy season may have stopped today but we have had really bad rains for a month now, well past the date when they should have stopped. The road has been a disaster. I met with SNV in Hohoe (3 hours) and was nearly in tears when I finally reached Nkwanta, every bone ached and my arms were worn out with hanging on to the steering through endless pot holes. We were due to have the launch of the Women's Association. But the dignitaries we had invited from Accra refused to come on the road, ‘it makes them sick' was the report we received from the DCE!
This has also been a time for visitors. Nicola, who was with me for 7 weeks, left as I returned from the UK. Her visit was very successful and we got on well despite everyone assuming she was my daughter. Ben arrived next and stayed for just over three weeks. His massive motorbike caused quite a stir in the town. I have just said good bye to Karen and May, two medical students who came for a few days. Karen had climbed Kilamanjaro for us and raise over £800. She wanted to see how her money would be spent. The next visitor arrives next week from Barclays Bank. They want to see what they are sponsoring, fingers crossed that they will be pleased, Bit concerned that they will just want to sleep after travelling the road!
There are many plans afoot for the coming months which I will tell next time as some plans have still to be finalised. It has been a great help to GEP to work with the support of SNV. They have vast experience and are highly respected for their work as capacity builders for local people and for smaller NGO such as us. They do like paperwork though, not my best area!!
On the domestic front, the ‘farm' is doing well quite well. There are 3 new puppies but I lost the latest brood of duckling. We had a massive down pour and they just got too cold and died. Two more ducks are sitting on eggs so life goes on.
Christmas is getting nearer, Accra is a bit festive but Nkwanta will carry on as normal, Christmas usually passes almost unseen. This year, the Peace corps workers are planning to take over the Guest house for the 3 holiday days, so things may be a bit more lively. The guest house has so far managed to cover all the expenses of the Centre since I returned from the Uk. I have yet to register for VAT but the income is looking good. We will have to employ someone to clean there which is good, GEP needs to support by providing jobs as well as programmes.
Will write again before Xmas
Gill
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